The wrong starting point
What if today’s arts sector is built on the wrong theory of demand?
A theory of demand is a set of assumptions about why people choose to buy your product. Essentially, it hypothesizes why demand exists and what drives it.
It’s invisible—but every organization operates from one.
A value proposition is the organization’s external answer to that theory. Marketing, programming, pricing, customer experience, and growth strategy all flow from it.
So if your underlying theory of demand is misaligned with consumer reality…yikes.
The traditional theory of demand
For much of the 20th century, the arts sector could reasonably operate from a product-centered theory of demand:
“People value the art form itself. Therefore, if we produce it at a high level, and tell people about it effectively, enough people will choose to attend.”
That theory depended on a set of conditions that once supported it. But by the early 2000s, those conditions were changing rapidly.
Leisure alternatives multiplied, cultural authority fragmented, social rituals changed. Fewer people were brought up to believe that “going to the symphony/opera/museum” was inherently worth doing.
The traditional theory of demand aligned less and less with how consumers made choices.
The sector has worked hard to adapt. But one thing has remained largely untouched: its underlying theory of demand. So, most of that adaptation happened downstream:
Make the programming more contemporary.
Return to the classics.
Build a more impressive venue.
Get out of the traditional venue.
Hire a celebrity conductor.
Be more inclusive.
Lower ticket prices.
Make subscriptions more flexible.
All of these strategies still assume that demand begins with the art form. And that assumption restricts where we look for growth.
Starting from the outside in
If we start with the art form, we look for people who already love it. And we ask how to make more people want, access, or choose it.
If we start with people’s lives, we can ask a much bigger question: What demand already exists—and where could the arts become relevant to it?
It’s a pivot from “who already likes classical music” to “who is seeking the outcomes that our classical music can provide?”
That’s a very different way to think about demand. And it dramatically expands the number of people an organization could become relevant to.
This new theory of demand starts not with the product or the institution, but with the world outside:
People do not begin by wanting an arts experience. They begin with circumstances in their lives, struggles they are trying to resolve, and outcomes they want. Demand emerges when an arts experience becomes relevant to that progress.
When the world changes, it’s easy to change the things we can see: the programming, the venue, the pricing, the marketing.
What if we changed the logic beneath them?
